Recreational hunter shoots four people in church

Thomas Jacob Sanford, the suspect in the mass shooting at a church in Michigan on Sunday morning, 28 September 2025, was a recreational hunter in his final phase.

According to police, 40-year-old Sanford from Burton, Michigan, rammed his pickup truck into the facade of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc before opening fire on worshippers and at some point setting the building ablaze. At least four people were killed and eight injured. Sanford died during an exchange of fire with police, reports the New York Times.

Authorities have not named a motive for the attack.

A Marine Corps spokesperson said Sanford had served as a sergeant and received several medals for his service, which lasted from 2004 to 2008. From the summer of 2007, he was deployed for several months as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Social media accounts linked to Sanford's family indicate that he was married and had at least one child, a young son. According to a GoFundMe page from 2015, the family required donations to fund medical care for Sanford's son, who was born with a rare genetic disorder.

The newborn was diagnosed with congenital hyperinsulinism, which required a lengthy hospital stay and several operations to remove parts of the pancreas, as a family Facebook page reports.

Other posts on Sanford's mother's Facebook page show that Sanford was a recreational hunter who posed with deer and other game from his recreational hunting activities.

According to IG Wild beim Wild, annual medical-psychological assessments are required for recreational hunters following the model of the Netherlands, as well as an upper age limit. The largest age group among recreational hunters is 65+, those with age-related, cognitive, visual, concentration, and reaction impairments, as well as training and practice deficits. From the age of 45, the number of accidents involving humans and animals increases dramatically. The alarming reports of hunting accidents and fatal crimes involving recreational hunter weapons make it clear: it is high time to abolish recreational hunting! Deadly firearms must not be placed in the hands of recreational hunters, who can use them in a completely uncontrolled manner! Recreational hunters represent everything that is wrong with the world.

Recreational hunters embody speciesism. Speciesism is comparable to racism and sexism, and that is not a culture or tradition.

Particularly in the case of recreational hunting, it is essential to look very closely. Nowhere else is so much manipulation carried out through falsehoods and fake news. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin.

More on this in the dossier: Psychology of Hunting